New to Pinside! My Dad used to fix coin-ops all around the Phoenix area in the early 80s, and was able to snag some equipment people no longer wanted. I used to stand on a milk crake and play our Playboy (along with a Williams Flash) all during my childhood. It was definitely a hit in the neighborhood growing up.

Anyway, he passed away in 2008 so I've been wanting to stand these up again. It's in decent shape but I plan on doing some basic restoration or at least deep cleaning. I plan on starting a thread for some advice once it's stood up. It has the original backglass and has no obvious flaws. My dad used to tell me the backglass in definitely the most fragile part and during his time working on coin-op there were instances where they would shatter for no obvious reason just walking them across the shop. Whenever I have to move the unit or remove it from the back box this is always the part I'm most paranoid about. Realistically, how fragile is the original backglass? Obviously i'm not going to mistreat it, but if I'm not being stupid are these things pretty solid? How often do these accidentally break during maintenance?

Finally got the Playboy out of storage. Playfield is in great condition except a little wear around the inserts. The worst part by far is around the 5x light. There is quite a bit of ballswirl that I'm hoping to clean. Planning on cleaning and waxing it tonight. Looks like U11 on the sound board is bad so I'm ordering some replacement parts and a few caps. See this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-playboy-some-sounds-are-quick . I just installed an anyPin as well.

What is the best way to prevent future wear? I'm going to keep a good waxing/ball replacement regiment but anything else? The playfield is in such good condition otherwise I feel like stripping, touch ups, and doing a full clear coat following vid1900's guide is a little overkill. If I can prevent more damage I think I'm satisfied with the condition. Honestly the cabinet is in worse condition than anything else.

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What is the stock flipper rubber color for this game? I've seen red and yellow. I ordered a rubber kit from Marco Specialities and it came with yellow, but it also came with a Bally Playboy sticker/barcode on the bag but a a Stern Playboy rubber instruction sheet inside the bag. Googling images it looks like a lot of both colors, maybe slightly more red.

Right thread, and yeah it looks like they mixed up the kit. I bought 2 kits which came in the same bag and ironically I followed the manual for my machine and at least had enough for one full replacement and it looks like two full replacements. Possible the Stern version has a similar enough rubber set except the flipper color. I'll just order a Bally Playboy kit from someone else when I have to change the rubbers and keep this weird kit as a spare.

I'm in the early stages of building an alternate rule set and game modes for the Playboy powered by a lot of the work DickHamill did in this thread: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacing-the-m6800-in-a-stern-mpu100-with-an-arduino/page/3#post-5740886

He's already got alternative rules for Stern Stars now called Stern Stars 2020, and Bally Blackjack 2020. Basically you build an entirely new game ROM on an Arduino and you can pretty much do anything. I'm looking to make Bally Playboy 2020 and make it available.

The Playboy is pretty straightforward as it is. Collect keys, get mega points in the grotto, collect month targets, get extra ball, etc. I'm envisioning a lot more depth, similar to newer games. For example, emulating "lower and upper playfields" by loading and unloading game states. For example, say you get in the grotto. The grotto instead of plain 1k/2k/3k/4k/25k points while captured it clears the entire table, turns the bonus scoring in the bottom of the playfield into a countdown timer ticking down from 40 or 20 or something. Ejects the ball then until the timer runs out points would be multiplied by the number of keys you have at that time... Or something.

Admittedly I don't have much experience playing pinballs other than Bally Playboy and Williams Flash. What objectives or features would be cool for this game? Consider out of the box ideas like using one of the backboard displays to show some other data like a subscore or multiplier or something. Unlimited balls is possible, or sudden death where you have to avoid the pop bumpers or keys or something. I'm planning on taking a close look at the playfield and drafting some new rules in the next few days.

Thinking more about alternate rule sets the drop targets pose a real problem for moving between game states. You can't "set" drop targets, only reset them all to "up". The obvious solution is to make the drop targets a trigger for one of those phase changes. Hit all 5 drop targets as the goal (or part of a goal), reset into a new mini-game mode, then when the mini-game ends, reset the drop targets when you resume the outer/main game.

Here's another interesting example: Getting all 5 drop targets starts a 39sec countdown for invincible mode where draining the ball automatically kicks it back to the shooter lane without losing a ball and pauses the timer until one of the top keys is hit again. If you can get all the months before 39sec is up you are rewarded with the satisfying drop target reset sound and get an extra ball which when played is double points. You could turn the other switches into time extenders so if you're down to 10sec, hit it into the pop bumpers and each pop bumper gives you like 2sec back. Could make for some really fun intense moments where you're down to the clock, shoot it into the bumpers, then you get lucky with a real good flurry of bumpers, see your bottom bonus timer quickly fill and are back to up to 30sec+.

I really like the idea of using the 1-10,20 numbers on the bottom as a timer mechanism with some objective during that time. Month target seems like a good accessible goal which doesn't slow down the game a lot like the top keys can. Maybe something else during that time like hit the center #5 Key target and it starts collecting the other keys. So one strategy could be the normal way of getting the keys, or getting all the drop targets and hitting the #5 Key two times (because you've probably already collected 2-3 keys).

How's the playfield? Mine came out of the Arizona State University game room. Playfield and back glass are great, but the cabinet is pretty worn. I wonder if the issue is those games don't get much play due to broke college kids? Maybe yours has had a different experience...

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Drop targets reset:
- On machine power on
- At the start of every ball
- When all drop targets have dropped
- During solenoid test mode

To my knowledge there are no settings/switches that adjust drop target reset frequency.

I've got my game into a good long term operational state now and starting to track my scores. I grew up playing this game, but I can factually say that it is night and day with the playfield properly maintained, switches properly capped and adjusted, a flipper rebuild, and properly angled. This game has never played better!

It's currently at 6deg because thats the most I can get with the current legs on carpet. I was at around 5 or so and boy the game is so much more lively at 6. Is it worth it to find some wood or something to bring the back up to 6.5deg? The carpet should be flat and I've got the front all the way down and the back all the way up. I can only get to 6deg.

Bally Playboy memes:
- Get extra ball via rollover downward and then straight down the middle. Neat, but at least I get the bonus.
- Nothing is sadder than the end of ball bonus with 5x and 1 bonus point. Just five sad beeps.
- Any others I'm missing?

Has anyone got any rough statistics on which of the top 4 keys are most likely after grotto eject? I feel like mine are very often 2 and 3, sometimes 1, and almost never 4. Maybe a stupid question and highly subjective based on playfield angle and how smooth/waxed the playfield is.

Is there a general consensus on competitive switch configuration? I'm doing 5-ball, most hold-over settings (like keys, extra ball), no keys tied together.

Mine has done the same thing for 30 years. I assumed it was normal? Is it not? Mine does a low pitched heeeeeee hummmm as the displays cycle through. I've replaced all the caps on the sound board fixing another issue, but haven't isolated the ground. Please let me know if this works for you.